Good evening! Light snow and 29 degrees in Cooperstown. ❄ There is a west-northwest breeze at 13 mph. 🍃. Things will start to thaw out at Friday around 11 am. 🌡️

Tonight will snow showers likely, mainly after 1am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 20 degrees at 6am. 12 degrees below normal, which is similiar to a typical night around December 18th. Maximum wind chill around 9 at 5am; West wind 11 to 14 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of around 2 inches. In 2017, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 32 degrees. The record low of 12 occurred back in 1996.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent Moon 🌒 with 37% illuminated. The moon will rise at 12:33 am. The First Quarter Moon will be tomorrow with scattered flurries. The Beaver Moon 🌝 is on Thursday, November 22nd. The sun will rise at 6:49 am with the first light at 6:19 am, which is one minute and 15 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 12 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 13 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will snow showers likely, mainly before 9am, then a chance of snow showers with scattered flurries after 5pm. Mostly cloudy 🌦, with a high of 28 degrees at 2pm. 21 degrees below normal. Northwest wind 9 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of around an inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 40 degrees. The record high of 70 was set in 1973. 14.4 inches of snow fell back in 1972.❄

I’m glad I made it out here before the roads froze up, as the temperature kept dropping as I headed out this way and the wind was really whipping around on Interstate 88, and for a while it was sleeting hard making visiblity difficult. Having the headlights well adjusted did help though a lot. Fortunately, it seems like the road salt will keep things from getting too icy right away. Having a good burger at the Cooperstown Dinner 🍔 and then going down for a swim in the indoor swimming then in the hot tub at the place I’m staying made up for it. Sometimes work trips are fun. 😎 Nice digs, at least for the night. But a busy today tomorrow.

Much more fun on a cold night like today then camping up in the wilderness somewhere in the wilderness,🏕 although if the snow disappears in December I probably will camp and maybe hunt up at Cherry Ridge in Charles Baker State Forest. My theory is we will get a big warm up with rain in mid-December, taking away the snow but maybe that’s wishful thinking. That was fun camping on Christmas Day 2015, not too cold that year, and it was a great hike at the Glimmerglass State Park. US 20 isn’t that far north of the northern part of the lake. Maybe I’ll have to visit the Cooperstown dinner again the next time I’m out here.

Truck has been working great, ever since I topped off the tires.☸ I guess I haven’t had the wheels in a hard lock, although I did rub a little on the wheel well backing out before, but I haven’t noticed any unusual noises since I raised the tire pressures up to 46 PSI cold. Some of them before I added air where about 39 PSI, which with those big tires is much too low, causing a lot of noise and poor handling on the curves. This might be too high for mid-summer when I’m off road and would lead to a rough ride, but for now the handling is superior and the ride is only slightly rougher on the bumps. I got to keep an eye on the tire pressure now that it’s getting to the colder time of the year.

I downloaded some of John Burrough’s audio books from LibreVox on my phone. I had no idea that my podcast program also is tied in LibreVox.🔊 I keep meaning to listen to some of Borrough’s writings, I’ve been very interested ever since visiting the Borrough’s State Historic site. I might listen to them for a while tonight. We will see, it depends how difficult it is to get to sleep, or how much I listen to them before i’m head out. I have a long day tomorrow, probably with more driving after dark. But at least my headlights are well aimed now.

I still haven’t found my electronic projects wire strippers. Really fustrating. The ones I have aren’t an expensive tool, ✂ but a very essential one for building electronics. I will have to order another pear this weekend if I can’t find them. I don’t think I can get them locally, nowadays with Radio Shack gone.

Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. 😞 Saturday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 38. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 31. Typical average high for the weekend is 47 degrees. Maybe it will be nicer up north, but by then I expect they will have a ton of snow up there. If it’s sunnier and without new snow falling, I might try to get up north to do some tent hot camping this weekend. I though will have to plan on bringing my snow shovel, then digging out a parking spot, then moving my truck to campsite, as I expect a ton of snow up north.🏔 Good for skiing though. A few inches of snow in Cooperstown, depending where you look. The mountains sure sure looked snowier around Interstate 88, probably too much snow to do the back roads in Burnt-Rossman State Forest any time soon.

In four weeks on December 11 the sun will be setting at 4:26 pm,🌄 which is 12 minutes and 8 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2017 on that day, we had snow, cloudy skies and temperatures between 34 and 24 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 37 and 23 degrees. The record high of 61 degrees was set back in 1952.

Sorry, if I’ve been too negative lately. 😠 It’s just tough adjusting to winter, which seems to have come so quickly. I wish I could have made my autumn road trip happen, it kind of sucks to have to put it off. But then again, I can’t control the snow or anything else that is going on.🌨 I’m still hoping the snow won’t set in for the year, but if it does, spring will eventually come, and then eventually the mud season will end and all the back country roads will open again.

Looking ahead, Christmas 🎅 is in 6 weeks, New Years Day 2019 🎉 is in 7 weeks, 36th Birthday 🎉 is in 11 weeks, Daylight Savings Time 🌆 is in 17 weeks, Hottest Time of the Year 😅 is in 8 months, Last Sunset After 8:30 PM 🌆 is in 35 weeks and Election Day 2020 🗳️ is in 103 weeks.